1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a novel break-action firearm
1. Prior Art
A break-action firearm is known from German Published Application No. DE 44 22 895 C1. In this publication, the hinge bearing for pivoting the barrel section of the firearm consists of a continuous hinge bolt, which extends underneath the two barrels perpendicular through the breech housing. The hinge bolt is gripped by the bearing box, which is composed of two halves, one half that is open to the front on a front barrel catch of a fastener section extending downwards and one half that is open to the rear of a bearing section that is attached to the rear end of the fore-end of the stock. To lock the barrel section relative to the breech housing, on the fastener section there is also a rear barrel catch that engages a slide that can be activated by a locking lever. At its front end, the fastener section also has an additional tab, which projects downwards and which acts as an abutment for a screw arranged in the fore-end of the stock. At the front end of the fore-end of the stock there is a locking mechanism, by means of which the fore-end of the stock can be locked to a lug of the barrel section. When the fore end of the stock is locked to the barrel section, the engagement between the screw and the tab acts so that the two halves of the bearing box grasp the hinge bolt with a predetermined pressure. However, for such a break-action firearm, the production of the fastener section with the two-barrel catches and the additional tab is relatively complicated. In addition, the fastener section exhibits a correspondingly high overall height due to its parts interacting with the underlying hinge bolt.
Another break-action firearm with a removable fore-end of the stock is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,671. In this publication, at its rear end, the fore-end of the stock has a bearing box with a convex bearing surface for contact on a concave counter surface at the front end of a breech housing. For play-free contact of the bearing box on the breech housing, in the middle of the fore-end of the stock there is a recess with an adjustable wedge slide. This wedge slide engages a wedge piece, which is attached to the bottom side of the barrel. Through corresponding adjustment of the wedge slide, the fore-end of the stock is pressed with its rear bearing box against the convex counter surface of the breech housing. For this configuration, however, the wedge piece attached to the barrel must absorb relatively large forces when the fore-end of the stock is braced due to the wedge effect, and thus, the wedge piece is attached to the barrel through hard soldering. However, the heat produced in this process can negatively affect the properties of the heat-treated barrels, which requires expensive post processing.
A break-action firearm is also known from German Published Application No. DE 199 09 114 C1, which contains a barrel fastener section that can pivot about a hinge bearing on the breech housing and a removable fore-end of the stock. The fore-end of the stock has in the region of its rear end one half of the bearing box, which is open to the rear and which, together with a bearing box half that is open to the front on the barrel fastener section, grips a continuous hinge bolt forming the hinge joint on the breech housing. The barrel fastener section also has a tab, which points downwards and which forms an abutment for a stop on the fore-end of the stock. At the fore-end of the stock there is an adapter sleeve, which is supported on a diagonal abutment surface of the tab when the break-action firearm is assembled and which provides contact pressure of the two bearing box halves against the hinge bolt.
The object of the invention is to provide a novel break-action firearm of the type mentioned in the foregoing discussion, which features a fore-end of the stock that is easy to manufacture with a low overall height.
This object is accomplished by a novel break-action firearm with a breech housing, a barrel section that can pivot about a hinge bearing on the breech housing, and a removable fore-end, which contains on its front end a locking mechanism and on its rear end a bearing section for pivoting connection to the breech housing. This provides an easy-to-manufacture fore-end of the break-action firearm with minimal overall height, such that the hinge bearing grasps hinge pin, which project laterally inwards from the breech housing and which engage in lateral recesses on opposing side surfaces of a fastener section of the barrel section. In addition, the bearing section has bolts, which project inwards with at least one lateral contact surface and which lead to contact on corresponding abutment surfaces on the two side surfaces of the fastener section.
The invention further contemplates that in a break-action firearm with a breech housing, a barrel section that can tilt about a hinge bearing on the breech housing, and a removable fore-end, which contains on its front end a locking mechanism and on its rear end a bearing section for pivoting connection to the breech housing, there is the improvement comprising the hinge bearing grasping hinge pins, which project laterally inwards from the breech housing and which engage in lateral recesses on opposing side surfaces of a fastener section of the barrel section, and the bearing section has bolts, which project inwards with at least one lateral side surface and which lead to contact on corresponding abutment surfaces on the two side surfaces of the fastener section.
Further features of the invention include the improvement wherein the bolts are arranged in two side cross pieces of the bearing section overlapping the side surfaces of the fastener section; the improvement wherein the bearing section has rear, concave bearing surfaces for contact to corresponding convex counter surfaces on the front end of the breech housing; the improvement wherein the bolts can rotate and are securely held on the bearing section so that they cannot fall out; the improvement wherein the bolts can rotate due to a radial groove provided in the bolts and a cross pin arranged in the cross pieces and are securely held on the bearing section so that they cannot fall out; the improvement wherein the abutment surfaces are arranged on the two side surfaces of the fastener section above the recesses for the hinge pin; the improvement wherein the abutment surfaces are arranged on the front side of two guidance grooves on the two side surfaces of the fastener section; and the improvement wherein the bolts have at least two opposing contact surfaces with different distances to the center axis of the bolt.
For the break-action firearm according to the invention, the barrel section can pivot about two hinge pins, which project inwards in the breech housing and which engage lateral recesses on opposing side surfaces of a fastener section. The bearing section of the fore-end connected to the breech housing so that it can pivot has bolts, which project inwards with at least one lateral contact surface and which contact corresponding abutment surfaces on the two side surfaces of the fastener section for a stacked fore-end. Through corresponding selection of the simple-to-exchange bolts, the contact pressure of the fastener section can thus be adjusted to the hinge pin and if necessary, quickly and easily corrected. If, e.g., the play on the hinge joint is too large or too small, the bolts can be removed in a simple way and replaced by bolts for which the distance of the contact surface to the bolt center point is correspondingly greater or smaller. Due to the lateral bolts, system forces acting on the fore-end are supported by the fastener section. Therefore, the locking mechanism should not receive large forces, so that the mountings attached on the barrel can be attached, e.g., through soft soldering, without a great heating effect. Thus, negative effects on the barrels can be avoided. Both the two hinge pins and also the bolts are arranged at the level of the bottom barrel, which enables a minimal overall height and compact construction of the firearm fore-end.
In a preferred configuration of the invention, the bolts have at least two opposing contact surfaces at different distances to the center axis of the bolt. Thus, different contact forces can be realized with one bolt through a corresponding rotation.
Additional details and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments when taken in conjunction with the drawings.